Travel deep dive
Kartarpur and Pakistan's Sikh Heritage
Sikhism was born in the Punjab, and the land that is now Pakistan holds some of its most sacred places — the sites where Guru Nanak, the faith's founder, was born, lived and died. For the world's Sikhs these are places of deep pilgrimage, and for any visitor they are serene, welcoming and richly built gurdwaras that open a window onto one of the subcontinent's great religious traditions. They cluster in the Punjab, within reach of Lahore.
Updated 2026-08-20
Guru Nanak and Kartarpur
Guru Nanak, the first of the ten Sikh Gurus and the founder of the faith, spent the last years of his life at Kartarpur, on the banks of the Ravi, where he gathered a community, farmed the land and taught the principles that became Sikhism. Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur marks the place, a white-and-gold shrine set among fields — one of the holiest sites in the religion because it is where the Guru passed away.
The gurdwara has been beautifully restored and expanded, its domes and marble courtyards set off by the surrounding farmland, and it functions today as it always has: with the langar, the free communal kitchen open to all regardless of faith, at its heart. Visitors of any background are welcome to observe, share a meal and sit in the calm of the complex.
Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib
If Kartarpur is where Guru Nanak died, Nankana Sahib, southwest of Lahore, is where he was born, which makes it arguably the single most important Sikh pilgrimage site of all. The town takes its name from the Guru and its central shrine, Gurdwara Janam Asthan, stands on the site of his birth; it fills with pilgrims from across the world for Guru Nanak's birth anniversary, the Gurpurab celebrated each November.
The third of the great shrines is Gurdwara Panja Sahib at Hasan Abdal, north of the capital, built around a rock said to bear the handprint — the panja — of Guru Nanak, with a spring flowing beside it. It draws its largest gatherings at Baisakhi in the spring. Together, these three gurdwaras trace the arc of the founder's life across the Punjab.
The Kartarpur Corridor
Kartarpur lies very close to the frontier with India, and in 2019 a dedicated pilgrimage crossing, the Kartarpur Corridor, opened to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to make a single-day visit to Darbar Sahib and return the same evening, without the usual visa formalities. For a community for whom the shrine is among the holiest of all, it made a site many had only seen from a distance directly accessible.
For international visitors already in Pakistan, Kartarpur is reached overland from Lahore like the other shrines, and the corridor's terminal and the expanded complex have made the site comfortable to visit. The shrines are cared for by the national trust that manages Pakistan's Sikh and Hindu heritage sites, which also handles pilgrimage arrangements around the major festival dates.
Visiting the Shrines
A gurdwara welcomes everyone, and the etiquette is simple and the same at all three: remove your shoes, cover your head — a scarf is provided or brought — and behave with the quiet respect any place of worship deserves. There is no charge to enter, and the langar means you may well be offered food; accepting it is part of the experience rather than an imposition.
All three shrines lie within the Punjab and are usually visited from Lahore, making them a natural counterpart to the city's Mughal monuments for anyone interested in the region's religious history. The wider province that holds them — its Sufi shrines, its other historic towns and its living cities — is taken up by Punjab.